The Committee received the report of the
Solicitor to the Council (copy filed with signed minutes).

A General
Standards Issues for County Councillors and Co-opted Members

A1 Code
of Conduct Training

All County
Councillors and Co-opted Members have now been trained on the Code
of Conduct.

A2 Mandatory
Training

The County Council
agreed mandatory training in July 2015 for the following
sessions:

·
Code of Conduct

·
Data Controller

·
Corporate Parenting

·
Adult and Child Protection

·
Treasury Management

This was not
implemented as the term of office neared to a close but it is
considered appropriate to implement this now the new term has
started. It is intended to take the
Mandatory Training Policy back to Council to approve the inclusion
of following sessions as mandatory:

·
IT and information security

·
Equalities and Diversity

·
Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Act
2015

In addition Council
had agreed a programme of Mandatory Training arising from the
outcome of the CIW Review of Children’s Services.

RESOLVED
THAT:

REASON FOR
RESOLUTION:

(i) To note
the Council’s policy in relation to Mandatory Development
Sessions.

(ii) That the
Committee writes to all Group Leaders and Co-Opted
Members:

·reminding them of the Council’s
policy,

·providing a list of mandatory training dates,
and

·advising that in future the names of Members not
attending Mandatory Development Sessions will be reported to the
Standards Committee.

B1.1The current
position regarding matters with the Ombudsman was as
follows:

02/CC/2017
Ombudsman investigating.

01/CC/2018
Ombudsman investigating.

02/CC/2018
Ombudsman deciding whether or not to investigate

C1
Applications - County Councillors

No applications for dispensation have been received from County
Councillors.

D
Ombudsman’s Casebook

The
Ombudsman had published the Code of Conduct Casebook for the
following period:

·July – September 2017

A
copy of this Casebook was attached at Appendix
A.

E Annual
Report from Adjudication Panel for Wales

The
Adjudication Panel for Wales (APW) had published its Combined
Annual Report for 2014/15 and 2015/16 which can be accessed from
the Adjudication Panel for Wales website.

F
Adjudication Panel for Wales decision report

In
October 2017 the Adjudication Panel for Wales published a decision
report in respect of Alison Halford former Councillor for
Flintshire County Council. The
Adjudication Panel for Wales had received the matter as a referral
from the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales and, having dealt with
the matter at a Case Tribunal on 6th October
2017. The outcome of the Tribunal was
to disqualify Ms Halford from being or becoming a Member of a
relevant authority for a period of 14 months.

A
copy of the report was attached at Appendix B.

G Register
of Gifts and Hospitality

The
Register of Gifts and Hospitality covering the period May 2016
– November 2017 at Appendix C was
noted.